Link-fault tolerance in a distributed antenna system

A head-end unit of a distributed antenna system, comprising:

• a processing device;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code stored thereon, wherein the program code is executable for performing operations comprising:
• extracting, from one or more Ethernet frames received by the head-end unit, a payload of a first Ethernet frame of the one or more Ethernet frames, the first Ethernet frame including a start-of-frame field, and the one or more Ethernet frames associated with a frame repetition rate;
• determining, after a period of time corresponding to the frame repetition rate, whether the head-end unit detected an additional start-of-frame field included in an additional Ethernet frame;
• predicting, after a period of time corresponding to the frame repetition rate, a value for an additional start-of-frame field included in an additional Ethernet frame;
• and
• extracting an additional payload from the additional Ethernet frame based on the value for the additional start-of-frame field.

A distributed antenna system, comprising:

• a head-end unit configured to transmit one or more Ethernet frames, each of the one or more Ethernet frames including a start-of-frame field, the one or more Ethernet frames associated with a frame repetition rate;
• and
• a remote unit communicatively coupled to the head-end unit, the remote unit configured to:
• receive a first Ethernet frame of the one or more Ethernet frames transmitted by the head-end unit,
• extract a payload of the first Ethernet frame based on the start-of-frame field included in the first Ethernet frame,
• predict, after a period of time corresponding to the frame repetition rate, a value for an additional start-of-frame field included in an additional Ethernet frame, and
• extract an additional payload from the additional Ethernet frame based on the value for the additional start-of-frame field.